| | | | | |  | | By Nick Niedzwiadek | | | | | FULL SPEED AHEAD: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is poised to advance a series of long-stalled progressive initiatives as it races to act before Chair Charlotte Burrows’ possible departure at year’s end. The Senate last week voted to confirm Kalpana Kotagal for the seat previously held by Trump EEOC Chair Janet Dhillon, giving Democratic appointees a majority on the five-member panel two-and-a-half years into President Joe Biden’s term. EEOC Republicans had held a de facto veto on the agency’s agenda, constraining the Democratic appointees’ ability to pursue litigation against businesses or craft new rules protecting employees from various forms of workplace discrimination. Once Kotagal officially joins the commission, the Democratic trio will be free to act without buy-in from GOP Commissioners Keith Sonderling or Andrea Lucas. But they will immediately feel time constraints as Burrows’ term is up — raising the prospect of a return to a 2-2 split once the calendar turns to 2024. Biden has renominated Burrows for a third term, but there is no guarantee Democratic leadership will find the necessary floor time between judicial confirmations and critical legislation like the annual military policy bill and funding to keep the federal government open. EEOC observers also anticipate Burrows will move to solidify previous actions that were issued without commission approval, such as language interpreting the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County that federal anti-bias laws prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Other items to watch will be potential updates to its sexual harassment guidance, changes to the EEOC's pay data reporting requirements, and whether Burrows moves to shake up the agency's operations in a way she previously could not. And congressional Republicans are already making clear that they intend to keep a close eye on the EEOC in the coming months. More for Pro subscribers here. GOOD MORNING. It’s Monday, July 17. Welcome back to Morning Shift, your go-to tipsheet on labor and employment-related immigration. It’s been 125 days since the Senate received Julie Su’s nomination. Send feedback, tips, and exclusives to NNiedzwiadek@politico.com and OOlander@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @nickniedz and @oliviaolanderr.
| | | | A message from UPS: Want the latest updates on UPS-Teamsters negotiations? Learn more here. | | | | | NOT SO FAST: The top Republican on the Senate HELP Committee is warning the Biden administration against allowing Julie Su to serve as acting Labor secretary indefinitely if she is unable to be confirmed. “Any attempts to bypass the will of Congress, especially its constitutionally mandated advice and consent role, is unacceptable,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said in a statement to POLITICO. Su’s candidacy took a near-fatal blow last week when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) came out against her, and the White House hinted that another key holdout, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), may also not support the acting secretary’s confirmation — though the Biden administration has not yet thrown in the towel. Still the saga has emboldened Republicans to whack away at her regularly and raise the prospect that DOL actions signed off under Su may be invalidated by the courts. House Education and Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) has asked the Government Accountability Office for clarity on the legality of Su’s continued service. However don’t expect any speedy action on that; GAO reports often take months, if not years, to arrive. TRY, TRY AGAIN: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is re-upping his attempt to attach language prohibiting the executive branch from stripping civil service protections from thousands of federal workers, as former President Donald Trump sought late in his term. “Kaine on Friday announced that he filed an amendment to the Senate version fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act that would attach the Saving the Civil Service Act to the annual must-pass bill. The measure bars the president from creating any new job classifications within the excepted service aside from the five that existed in September 2020, effectively requiring the president to seek congressional approval to add new job categories,” Government Executive reports. More Hill news: “Congress Likely to Preserve OSHA Loophole That Endangers Animal Ag Workers,” from Civil Eats.
| | | | JOIN 7/26 FOR A TALK ON THE NEW ENERGY ECONOMY: Join POLITICO's lively discussion, "Powering a Clean Energy Economy," on July 26 at 5:15 PM ET. We'll explore the effectiveness of consumer-targeted policies to boost sustainability and create clean energy jobs. How are the Inflation Reduction Act's provisions faring? Which strategies truly sway consumer behavior? How are advances in technology shaking things up? And, what's the future for energy consumption reduction? Hear from featured speaker, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), among other experts. Don't miss this insightful event — register today and be part of the conversation driving America's clean energy future! REGISTER NOW. | | | | | Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.
| | DOWN THE ROAD: A legal challenge to the constitutionality of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s in-house courts could have ramifications for the Labor Department. The Supreme Court last month agreed to take up SEC v. Jarkesy, which is about whether the use of administrative enforcement proceedings to impose civil penalties violate the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial. The outcome of the case could upend the system that agencies, DOL included, have relied on for decades to enforce federal laws. A conservative legal outfit has filed a pair of lawsuits, in New Jersey and D.C., challenging fines that the DOL judges levied against two businesses for labor law violations along similar grounds as the case before the Supreme Court. “DOL shouldn't be imposing these types of fines in agency courts where you don't have, you know, a real judge or real jury,” said Rob Johnson, a senior attorney for the group, the Institute for Justice. “They might say that they're independent, but ultimately we're talking about walking into a court where the prosecutor and the judge are employed by the same administrative agency. And that's just not the system that the Constitution created.” A DOL spokesperson declined to comment on the pending cases. More agency news: “Employees who sued Florida Rep. Basabe for sexual harassment file claims with EEOC,” from the Miami Herald.
| | | EBBS AND FLOWS FOR ALU: A federal judge brushed aside an attempt by a dissenting faction of the Amazon Labor Union to force leadership elections, THE CITY reports. “U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly of the Eastern District of New York urged the union and the members who sued to settle their dispute, with the help of a mediator if necessary. ‘Everybody stop,’ Donnelly said at one point during the hearing. ‘Because you’re going to have to work this out yourselves.’” But the judge did ask lawyers for the ALU Democratic Reform Caucus to refile their petition, signaling additional skirmishes between the two sides to come. Separately the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint to Amazon for allegedly failing to bargain with ALU in the months after its surprising victory on Staten Island last year, CNBC reports. Amazon has contested the results of the election and said it does not believe it was legitimate. More union news: “United Airlines pilots reach labor agreement, boost pay,” from Reuters.
| | | | A message from UPS:   | | | | | WHAT’S SO COOL WHEN IT'S HOT HOT HOT: Extended periods of extreme temperatures and humidity across the country have taxed workers and businesses this summer, The Wall Street Journal reports. “A 2018 study of the impact of rising temperatures on the U.S. economy published in the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking found that a one-degree Fahrenheit increase in the average summer temperature can reduce the annual growth rate of a state’s output by 0.15 to 0.25 percentage point.” At the same time, there are sparse protections to shield U.S. workers from being forced to labor in intense heat. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is slowly working on a national standard, though that appears years away at best, and only a handful of states have set their own rules. “According to OSHA data, the three most fatal heat-related jobs are construction, agricultural work and landscaping, and among these jobs, OSHA says 50 to 70 percent of heat fatalities occur within a worker’s first few days,” The Washington Post reports. More workplace news: “Portrait of a ‘Pink-Collar’ Working Man,” from POLITICO Magazine. Even more: “The Bad-Vibes Economy,” from The Atlantic.
| | | DACA DREAMS: House Republicans narrowly defeated a Democratic amendment aimed at allowing Dreamers to work for the federal government. The proposal has cropped up regularly in recent years, but has routinely been thwarted by GOP opponents. The most recent iteration came as an amendment to the Financial Services appropriations bill offered by Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) that required some scrambling by Republicans to round up the votes necessary to sink the measure on a 30-30 tie, our Jennifer Scholtes reports. More immigration news: “When the migrants vanished from this desert outpost, so did the jobs,” from The Washington Post. Even more: “Poland Doesn’t Want Migrants, but These Foreign Workers Are Welcome,” from The New York Times.
| | | | JOIN 7/27 FOR A TALK ON WOMEN LEADERS IN THE NEW WORKPLACE: In the wake of the pandemic, U.S. lawmakers saw a unique opportunity to address the current childcare system, which has become increasingly unaffordable for millions of Americans, but the initial proposals went nowhere. With the launch of the Congressional Bipartisan Affordable Childcare Caucus in May, there may be a path to make childcare more affordable in the U.S. Join Women Rule on July 27 to hear from featured speakers Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), and Reshma Saujani, Founder & CEO of Moms First and Founder of Girls Who Code, on ways to reach a bipartisan solution on this timely issue for women in the workplace. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | |  | what we're reading | | — “Global Layoffs Slow in Sign Cooling Economy Won’t Mean Recession,” from Bloomberg. — “UPS strike could be costliest in US in a century, study says,” from Reuters. — “In Hollywood, the Strikes Are Just Part of the Problem,” from The New York Times. — “Workers find ‘hoteling’ policies less than hospitable,” from The Washington Post. — ”Adjuncts Making $100K? Sure, in the Magical World of ZipRecruiter,” from The Chronicle of Higher Education. THAT’S ALL FOR SHIFT!
| | | | A message from UPS: UPS is focused on negotiating a new labor contract that provides wins for our employees, the union, UPS and our customers. Today, full- and part-time union employees at UPS receive industry-leading wages, low-to-no-cost health care, pension benefits, tuition assistance and more. For example, UPS full-time delivery drivers receive average total compensation of $145,000 per year. That includes $0 health care premiums, contributions to a defined-benefit pension plan and up to seven weeks of paid vacation, plus paid time off for holidays, sick leave and option days. Learn more about how UPS is approaching these negotiations. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
Comments
Post a Comment